Green & Silver - The Bright Sea, Dieppe (Primary Title)

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American, 1834 - 1903 (Artist)

ca. 1883
American
Watercolor and gouache on paper
Unframed: 10 × 7 1/8 in. (25.4 × 18.1 cm)
Framed: 14 5/8 × 11 9/16 × 1 11/16 in. (37.15 × 29.37 × 4.29 cm)
L2015.13.63
 One of the most remarkable artists of his day, Whistler crafted a unique style born of an intellectual and visceral response to the harmonious relationships between color, light, and form in space that, when properly distilled, affected a poetic ideal. Here, a French coastal landscape is divided into three geometric spaces precisely defining the painting’s interrelated subjects: the subtly tinted sky, the blue-green sea, and the ocher beach scattered with figures. The forms, created from daubs and strokes of black ink, pepper the seascape’s soft washes of color, while a high horizon intensifies the flat, vertical perspective. The combination invokes the decorative qualities of the aesthetic movement and its particular interest in Japanese art.
at center right: artist's butterfy device, twice
James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin Collection
"American Art from the McGlothlin Collection" Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (1 May - 18 July 2010).

"Capturing Beauty: American Impressionist & Realist Paintings from the McGlothlin Collection," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (19 May-18 September, 2005).

"J.A. McNeill Whistler," Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut (May - June 1949): no. 43, as "The Beach at Dieppe."

"Whistler 1834-1903 Loan Exhibition," Macbeth Gallery, New York (April - May 1947): no. 36.

"'Notes'-'Harmonies'-'Nocturnes,'" Messrs. Dowdeswell, London (May 1886): no. 62.

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